SAN ANTONIO WOMEN’S
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Meeting Minutes for January 9, 2017
Girls, Inc.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Sarah Becher, Dr. Yvonne Katz, Tracey Ritchie, Belinda Gavallos, Stacey Isenberg,
Gabrielle Gelo, Monica Gillooly, Rebecca Hughes, Lacey Fischer, Sondra Grohman, Angelica Docog, Diane
Polanco, Kristen Villarreal, Amy Gonzalez, Jennifer Haft, Margie Hildreth, Lori Johnson Leal and Nicole Ross
MEMBERS ABSENT: Dr. Susan Blackwood, Zina Guerra, Dr. Gwen Young, Cindy Taylor, Dr. Sandra
Neubert, Rosalind Reeder and Catherine Stone
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New board member was introduced – Jennifer Haft. All board members present introduced themselves
and gave a little information about their SAWCC role and other professional roles.
Dr. Katz also presented Sarah’s official “Chair” nametag!
TOPIC DISCUSSION: Welcome/Pledge
 Pledge/Mission was recited.
TOPIC DISCUSSION: Report from Secretary
 Minutes from the December BOD’s meeting were distributed by Tracey prior to meeting for review.
 One small correction, Lacey’s last name has been spelled incorrectly. Tracey will correct going
forward.
 2017 board locations are complete, minus August, although we have a question out to someone.
Because we haven’t heard back from the Spurs Sports & Entertainment about the August 7th meeting,
we will go with Sarah’s location – Alterman Engineering. Lacey noted that the Library can be a backup
location if any months are needed.
ACTION: Motion was made and seconded to approve the December BOD’s meeting minutes. Approved
unanimously.
TOPIC DISCUSSION: Report from Treasurer
 Stacey distributed the end of year financials
 We are in a good position. For the year we ended up netting $54,000 in income, which is really good
 Regarding budget v actual – we brought in more revenue than expected in the categories of fundraising
($10,000) and membership ($12,000)
 Will review before we renew our regular deposit into savings
 Dr. Katz noted she will be meeting with a CPA regarding our 501 (c)(3) status and next steps
ACTION: Financials will be filed for audit.
TOPIC DISCUSSION: Committee Reports
Business Development
 Dr. Katz reported on behalf of Sondra that we are doing away with the Velvet Touch committee. We
found that our corporate members were renewing and all did not want to meet to talk about the
membership
 We had a new corporate member join online without us even knowing about it! We will definitely be
visiting them
 We are also currently in talks with The Phoenix to see if they will join. This is the new organization
opening in February on the South Side and they represent all of the Embassy suites and other
hotel/motel members associated with them.
 Becky Spieth will become a new PR member. This is a trade (she will be performing her leadership
consultant/training services for the board member retreat in March) for a new category of corporate
membership. In return, she will get her name/logo on the website and certain other materials, will be
announced at certain events, etc.
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Belinda spoke to a new contact from CBI (Culture Based Interiors) who is interested in joining. She
went to her event recently and they had a networking calendar for all of SA (SAWCC was included!).
Belinda will work with Dr. Katz and Sondra about a corporate membership for them.
Communications
 Announcements for our new Leadership program have gone out – applications will be accepted through
the 13th, with a final reminder going out tomorrow.
 We currently have 15 registered, 5 of those are non-corporate members. Still have 8 corporate
members we are trying to work with for attendees.
 PowerHour is coming up and final reminders will be going out on Friday
 We currently have 26 so far and would like to have over 50, so please send out to everyone in your
contacts.
 We have a new and updated list of communication deadlines at everyone’s seat. This will also be on the
board resources page for reference. Please pay review and follow the deadlines for all your events.
 Lacey had a suggestion regarding communications on the PowerHours. Perhaps in January we can send
out a list to contacts with all 4 dates so they can already register and get them on their calendars. We
could potentially offer a discount (like a package deal) if they sign up for all 4 in advance. Rebecca will
look into how we could do this administratively.
 Social media – reported by Kristen
 December and yearly numbers
o Facebook: 1,1,442 likes (up 27) Up 423 through 2016
o Twitter: 3,192 followers (up 16) Up 252 through 2016
o LinkedIn: 540 members (up 2) Up 28 through 2016
o Instagram: 110 followers (up 5) Up 63 through 2016
o Reviewing a new application that helps create dynamic posts – will discuss with Rebecca and
committee
o Sarah noted that the Gala pictures were great – thank you Kristen!
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Education & Leadership
o SWS
o Diane reported that we are finalizing for the February 15 th session right now. It is about
becoming “Fiscally Fit” and is geared towards all ages, including budgeting, retirement prep,
life issues, etc.
o Working with SeaWorld on getting all the information for the session there, including detailed
parking info
o The speaker for March is a little iffy right now, working on two options. Location and food are
complete
o Leadership
o Monica reported that the Transitional Leadership series will begin January 26th. We will not
have a “Spotlight Speaker” for this session.
o All speakers are confirmed except for June, which we are finalizing
o We will now have “Expert Speakers” and “Spotlight Speakers”. Many of them are new in the
program, especially the Expert Speakers. Several of them went through the program and
include consultants in leadership training.
o Boomberg
o Program will begin March 28th and the location will move around a few locations.
o Enrollment starts February 13th
o Our retreat will be at ITC this year and Becky Spieth will be leading it. She will be sending out
a survey soon – please remember to fill I tout honestly and quickly. This is a big deal and she
wants to personalize the training to exactly what we need.
Events
o Golf
o Dr. Katz reported on behalf of Cindy that the Golf committee will be having their second
meeting tomorrow.
o Start thinking about your team – we all need to be responsible for one team (if you don’t golf,
there are probably people in your contacts that do!)
o Also begin thinking about sponsors!
o Sondra has agreed to be a 5k sponsor again this year!! Thank you Sondra.
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Gala
Sarah reported that Dr. Blackwood will be the chair for the Gala this year
The committee had the post-gala meeting and here are a few highlights
All committee members enjoyed that the committee meeting locations moved around town, so
everyone had a chance to have it close by to them.
o The dynamic task list the committee used was well received – easy to check items off, assign
responsibility, add new items, etc.
o The committee needs a communications committee member for the gala. There was lots of
back and forth between the nominators, honorees, video team, etc. that could have been easier
managed with someone in charge of it. Rebecca has someone in mind on the communications
committee that may work.
o In July we will be bringing our sponsors into the nominations process a bit more
o There will also be a student ticket price of $55, which is just barely over our cost for food, etc.
 Stacey noted that this price still may be high for some students, perhaps we could do a
sponsor a student or similar program.
o We also need a technician next year because Sarah won’t be able to be in front of and behind
the mic running the event – perhaps an intern or tech student would work to get experience.
 Belinda’s cousin is the director of A/V at UIW, we can talk to him about finding
someone
o Cleto Rodriguez has been contacted about MC for next year but his agents are looking to get a
fee to have him M/C. Sarah spoke to them and explained that there is no fee, no MC has been
paid before and asked them to review what the event is, as it would be good for him to be a part
of it.
o Sondra recommended that we concentrate more on decorations for the tables next year, and she
has offered to take that project on and be responsible for it.
o We will change the video format a little next year so that the MC doesn’t have to take part of it
and it can flow better.
o IBC will do the video again, but we need to purchase a slate (inexpensive) so that it will be
easier to match up the audio and the video without all the work last year.
o We were keeping our eyes open for any end of year sales on projectors, and Sarah found one
that we purchased. It is a laser projector, which means its light lasts for 10,000 hours! It can
accommodate up to a 140” screen. We can use this for the galas, classes, when speakers need a
projector, etc.
o A recommendation was higher signage at the event, and we will have something made and be
able to use that for other events, as well in the future.
o Date for 2017 gala is changed to November 11 th!
o Lacey will add the event to the nonprofit calendar.
PowerHour
o January’s event is next Wednesday and our speaker Pam Parish, President of Broadway Bank’s
San Antonio Region.
o Identifying speakers for the Sept/Oct session and have several good possibilities – we should
know by the end of this week who we want to book.
Mixer
o No update at this time.
Membership
o Belinda reported that December saw 3 new members and 5 decreases, although we believe 2 of
them are just late in paying and will renew.
o The committee had a great brainstorming session last week and talked about ideas like
 How to engage social media followers to be members
 Can we do some sort of raffle for a membership drive on social media
 Amy suggested that it would need to be a significant discount like 50% off to
entice people.
 Rebecca noted that we tried this a couple of times previously and did not have
any participation, so we would want to review and see how we could do it
differently this time.
 Starting an outreach program to Gala honorees to get them to participate in events
 Idea from Lacey was to change to an auto renewal process, and send a reminder where
people have to deselect not to renew
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o
We cannot do this type of program at this time because we can’t store credit
card information or bank info. Perhaps as we grow and can outsource that
 Participating in student events and getting people there to engage students.
 Angelica provided Belinda with some info on this – one idea is to engage this
with the Tri-centennial celebration to be a partner and then we can advertise as
such
There is a new member mixer on Wednesday this week and we have 16 people registered so far.
If you can join us, please try to come and let Belinda know if you want to bring something
o
Committee Involvement
o No update at this time
Alumnae mixer
o Lori (director at large) will be changing her board focus, at the request of Dr. Katz from the
Alumnae mixer to the yearly Charity of Choice that Dr. Blackwood started
o Lori has a colleague at CPS who is trying to put together an Alumnae group for another
chamber and he is having the same issues that we had – she recommends that we ask the new
leadership and Bloomberg members how they would want to interact after the class to see if we
can get any other ideas for the future
o Dr. Katz brought up that we may want to look at a different type of mixer in the future, for our
sponsors and corporate members who have helped get us where we are over the last 5 and ½
years.
o It may be nice to coincide this with the 30 year anniversary as a thank you and a kickoff for the
30 years!
TOPIC DISCUSSION: Other Business
 Sarah will be teaching in Europe during the next board meeting, so Dr. Katz will lead it for us
 Our 501 (C) (3) status is fully approved! We are working through the next steps and how that will look
and work.
 There is a Woman’s lunch coming up – it is the International Day of Women and they are having the
Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women’s lunch. Tickets are $75.
o It was discussed that perhaps depending on interest the chamber could pay ½ and attendees
could pay ½ to attend. Signup sheet was passed around
 The ITC is having their first Gala January 19 th this year. It is a little close to plan now (many were
already busy), but we would like to support them for the support they have given us over the years.
Tickets are $150 each of $1,500/table. Because it’s so soon, we would like to participate more next year
- as soon as the date for 2018 is picked, we ask that Angelica let us know so we can mark the date.
 We are still working on a few new board members – that has not been finalized yet.
 Hidden Figures! Please read Dr. Katz’s email about the inspirational movie and see if we want to do
something to get together and see it, then have a discussion afterwards. We could do a doodle to find
some prospective dates that work for people interested.
 New Org charts have been distributed
 If any of your contact information has changed, please let us know so we can update
 Sondra noted that Shining Star has created a new Girl Scout Entrepreneurial patch and made 10,000.
Need volunteers for the event, let Sondra know if you are interested.
Meeting adjourned.
Minutes respectfully submitted by:
Tracey Ritchie